Day 17, July 22 - Yosemite National Park - A day of Climbs and Falls

Our first day at the Yosemite Pines RV Park we had planned to drive through Yosemite National Park, however we slept a little later than normal and began to feel the toll of the long journey, so we spent the day cleaning the RV, feeding goats, sheep, donkeys, and alpacas at the petting zoo, relaxing by the pool and doing some much need laundry. The day was a relaxing one for all, and was extra special for me since my girlfriend came back from her 11 day trip through South America in which time I was not able to talk to her. In addition to that, she brought back exciting news that she had been selected for an internship with the Carter Center and will be joining me in Atlanta this fall!!

The evening consisted of the boys doing what we did through the majority of college careers, drink some icy cold refreshments and play poker. By the time that we were finished, we realized that it was 3 a.m., so we would be all ready for our trip through Yosemite bright and early the following day.

After another late start at 11:30 a.m. since we had to change the oil filter, shower, and check out of the resort, we finally entered the park. We began the trip at 6,200 feet and entered the park somewhere around 7,500 feet, not too bad of a warm-up for Charlotte and she performed like a champ! However, as we progressed the windy cliff side roads, her brakes were not feeling so great and began to seize up as they had our first day. We slowly continued on the now terrifying roads, worried that our brakes could fail at any moment and send us plunging a couple thousand feet to our deaths.

We eventually made it to a parking lot to give the brakes a rest, and I saw a sign for a hiking trail to Bridalveil Falls. Mike and Dave were hungry for some lunch, but since I had a third of Dave's breakfast mash(12 eggs and a pound of sausage) and I have a significantly smaller appetite than the two of them, I felt fine and decided to go for a hike by myself. The trail itself was no more than a 1/4 mile to a vista point of the falls, but as I saw some others climbing the rocks towards the falls, I decided to follow. Shortly thereafter I came upon a smaller set of waterfalls that flowed into a pool that I thought you could maybe put your feet in and hang out by. So I climbed a little further up for a better view of the big fall and took some pictures before retreating to the RV to find the others.

Mike and Dave were just settling down for a nice nap when I got to the RV. I reported to them on my reconnaissance mission, and at first they were not too impressed with my rock climbing adventures and were still going to nap. However, when I mentioned the pool underneath of the waterfall they jumped at the idea since it had gotten pretty hot in the RV.

By the time we reached the first fall, we were all quite hot and since I am the smallest and surest of foot, it was decided that I should enter the pool first, and boy was that a wake up call. The water must have been less than 60 degrees! Shortly thereafter we were bored with just swimming, and slightly numb, so mike decided to climb the rocks near the fall and see if he could find a natural water slide created by the slippery plant growth (moss and algae). After testing the depth of the water at the edge of the rock we discerned that Mike could in theory do the water slide without killing himself. This spawned other adventures in which we took turns climbing underneath of the water falls for some great pictures and even cooler views of the park! When we climbed up inside the fall I was able to follow the water up through the rocks and determined that there must be another pool above us. So we dried up and climbed up another 100 feet or so of rock, where we found a second waterfall that was better than the first, and proceeded to explore them again.

We decided here that we would continue to climb until it seemed improbable that there were more falls or probable that we would get injured or break the camera, the latter being the more pressing issue. When we reached the third and final pool we were in awe of the view. It looked just like a picture out of movie, with four or five water falls running into a large pool, with a massive cliff in the background and an incredible view of the rest of the park behind us. We quickly decided that this pool was clearly deep enough for us to jump off of the falls! And so the journey began of first Mike and Dave climbing over for a better look (since I was carrying the camera I had become the designated picture taker). Once they reached the other side the fun really started. They found a nice spot that was not slippery and would allow us to jump into a part of the pool that was 7 to 8 feet deep. We took turns jumping off of this and utilizing the camera's burst shots (24 pictures in less than 3 seconds) to capture one of our most memorable days yet.

When we finally returned, a 1/2 hour stop to rest the brakes had become a 5 hour journey that we won't forget. In the end, we decided that Charlotte had not really had brake problems, but instead was just offering a recommendation that we stop and enjoy the beautiful falls.

So to thank Charlotte for her great recommendation we decided to let her have some fun on a real climb. From the valley where the falls lied at about 5,000 feet we ascended Tiago Pass to 9,945 feet at the park's east entrance, the highest that Charlotte will ever be barring drugs in the gas tank. Tiago Pass is one of the highest paved roads in the contiguous United States!

At the end of a long day and another 3,000 ft drop, we retired to a Mexican restaurant about 20 miles outside of the park , where we ate dinner and parked the RV for the night...


Pictures
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